Gresham College Lectures 2023-2024
Gresham College’s free lectures on astronomy
We wanted to let you and your network know about our upcoming free public astronomy lecture series Discovering The Universe.
This series tells the story of our cosmos through exploring six fundamental discoveries: that of galaxies beyond our own, via probes sent to reveal the remarkably diverse wonders of our Solar System from the fountains of Saturn’s tiny moon Enceladus to Earth’s hellish twin, Venus, of the sudden appearance of interstellar visitors, the strange pulses received by the first radio telescopes and the twinkling of a star that misbehaved, and the revelation of detecting the oldest light of all. Together, these discoveries take us to the forefront of modern astronomy, and to the state-of-the-art in our understanding of the cosmos.
These lectures are hybrid as you can watch online, in person or on replay at a later date. Sign up to watch through the links below.
Professor Chris Lintott
Wednesday 13 September 2023, 6:00PM (UK time) or view online at: gres.hm/galaxies-beyond
Barnard’s Inn Hall, 30 Holborn, London EC1N 2HH
The discovery that we live in an ordinary galaxy, one of several hundred billion in the observable Universe, instigated a profound change in thinking about our place in the Universe. This first lecture covers the Great Debate of the early twentieth century as new telescopes and new ways of observing the cosmos put our Milky Way in its place; and looks at how subsequent observations helped us understand how galaxies like our own formed and evolved.
Professor Chris Lintott
Wednesday 25 October 2023, 6:00 PM (UK time) or view online at: gres.hm/solar-marvels
Barnard’s Inn Hall, 30 Holborn, London EC1N 2HH
Our exploration of the Solar System has revealed a remarkable diversity of landscapes, from the frozen deserts of Mars, which billions of years ago ran with water, to the hellish surface of Venus and the strange hydrocarbon seas of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. In our voyages to these places we have discovered what may be the most common home for life in the Universe - the ice-covered oceans found in many of Jupiter and Saturn's moons.
Professor Chris Lintott
Wednesday 24 January 2024, 6:00 PM (UK time) or view online at: gres.hm/oumuamua
Barnard’s Inn Hall, 30 Holborn, London EC1N 2HH
In 2017, the Solar System was visited by an object named 'Oumuamua’, which came from another star. The unusual properties of this first interstellar visitor led some to suggest it may be an alien spacecraft - but the truth is that its oddness is already teaching us lessons about how solar systems form. This lecture also considers the prospects of discovering more unusual objects in the Solar System, and what we might do about asteroids that threaten the Earth.
Professor Chris Lintott
Wednesday 21 February 2024, 6:00 PM (UK time) or view online at: gres.hm/radio-sky
Barnard’s Inn Hall, 30 Holborn, London EC1N 2HH
There have been two major revolutions in how we look at the sky - the shift beyond the optical to other wavelengths, particularly the radio, and the increasing attention paid to how objects change over time. We start with the discovery of pulsars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, explore how a microwave oven bamboozled astronomers, and discuss the latest research on Fast Radio Bursts, mysterious events detected in galaxies billions of light-years away.
Professor Chris Lintott
Wednesday 10 April 2024, 6:00 PM (UK time) or view online at: gres.hm/alien-star
Barnard’s Inn Hall, 30 Holborn, London EC1N 2HH
Boyajian's star, a faint and unprepossessing presence in the constellation of Cygnus, attracted astronomers' attention when it began to flicker alarmingly. We will discuss explanations for its behaviour, from disintegrating comets to alien megastructures, and consider how modern astronomy hunts for the truly unusual objects in the Universe. For this task, the involvement of large numbers of volunteers - citizen scientists - is essential, for example via the Zooniverse platform, which invites you to participate in classifying galaxies and discovering planets.
Professor Chris Lintott
Wednesday 29 May 2024, 6:00 PM (UK time) or view online at: gres.hm/first-light
Barnard’s Inn Hall, 30 Holborn, London EC1N
The final lecture in the series returns to the theme of how insight is derived from observations, considering the cosmic microwave background. This oldest light in the Universe, emitted just 400,000 years after the Big Bang, contains the seeds of the structures we see around us, and tells us about conditions at the Universe's beginning. It will also consider how measurements of the Universe's expansion, made using the CMB, are leading to unexpected results, creating tension in modern cosmology.
Read more about Professor Chris Lintott, who is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College also well known as presenter of the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer.
Deborah Kent, Laure Miolo, Eva Kaufholz-Soldat
Wednesday 18 October 2023, 4-7PM (UK time) or view online at: gres.hm/bshm-2024
Barnard’s Inn Hall, 30 Holborn, London EC1N 2HH
Joint lecture with the British Society for the History of Mathematics!
This event will focus on the relationship between astronomical research and the forging of mathematical communities. The keynote speaker, Professor Deborah Kent (6pm) will present on 19th-Century Eclipse Expeditions. This will be preceded by shorter presentations by Dr Laure Miolo (4pm) on Shaping Mathematical Practices Of The Science of the Stars, and Dr Eva Kaufholz-Soldat (4.30pm) on Victorian Era Astronomy: On Land And In the Skies.
Read more about Professor Deborah Kent, Professor Laure Miolo, and Dr Eva Kaufholz-Soldat.